Putting together the Top 50 blacks in sports.

Our ongoing mission at BLACK ENTERPRISE is to showcase the talents of some of the most powerful and brightest African Americans in the world of business and beyond. In this issue, we spotlight high-ranking individuals within the business of sports, The people who are on both the cover and the corresponding list of the "Top 50 Most Powerful African Americans in Sports" are individuals who broke through the color barrier in an industry notorious for keeping blacks locked out of management.

It wasn't until our July 1995 cover story, "BE's 30 Most Valuable Black Professionals in the Business of Sports," that the first wave of change occurred. That issue signaled "the beginning of the end of a system that pushed African Americans to make the shots but refused to let us call them; that profited wildly from our athletic skills but dismissed our intellectual and management skills; that actually competed to get us on the team but stood strong against our owning the team," we wrote in 1995. We wanted to know just how much has changed, and in the 10 years since we first peeked inside the sports industry, a lot has.

Like any list we put together, compiling it is never easy. Our Features Editor Alan Hughes led a team of editorial researchers and reporters and combed the bleachers in a variety of sports, looking for today's most important and influential MVPs. We certainly had hoped to find more than 30 this time, and we were pleasantly surprised to easily identify 50 who met our criteria.

"African Americans have had a long history with professional sports in America, but it's been a fairly recent development that blacks have been able to break the barrier into the front offices, where the real play-calling happens," says Hughes. "While front offices at most leagues and teams remain far less diverse than their player and fan bases, the 50 people on our list prove that progress is being made."

Regardless of what you think about some of the people on our list, you cannot deny their influence and ability to generate money and a winning-team record. Boxing promoter Don King appeared on our first list in 1995 and appears again this year. Ten years ago, we recognized him for setting precedents in boxing since 1974, with the then unheard of $10 million in guaranteed purses lot the "Rumble in the Jungle" between George Foreman also the subject of this month's Back Talk column and Muhammad Ali in Zaire. Today, his career as a promoter includes more than 500 world--championship fights, including the record-breaking $14.2 million Holyfield-Tyson II light. King recently made news earlier this year with his multibillion-dollar lawsuit against ESPN for a feature he claims was defaming to his character.

Michael Jordan was also on our original list and is considered, perhaps, the greatest basketball player to ever play the game. He can still command respect among current players, front-office managers, and fans at large. In fact, Jordan's image proved so profitable, he was pulling in an estimated $40 million in income two years after his retirement.

The newcomers to our list have paid their dues as well. Big-name athletes Tiger Woods and Serena Williams represent a new generation of athletes who are able to garner millions of dollars in endorsement deals while changing the lace of sports and the type of athletes who play. Both Woods and Williams made the lily-white sports of tennis and golf accessible and attractive to young black children across the country. They also made white players step up their game in an effort to dethrone them from their No. 1 spots.

However, the biggest accomplishment in the history of African American sports comes from Robert L. Johnson, who, in 2002, became the first African American majority owner era sports franchise, the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats. This year marks the team's debut. But win or lose as a franchise, the owner is in a win-win situation. But then again, everyone on this year's list is a winner.